Brooze makes bar-hopping more rewarding. Users can redeem points for rewards, find bars in their area, attend events, and look for free parking spots - everything just one click away.
DESIGN PROCESS
RESEARCH
Research Goals:
-
Understanding what the users currently use do to find their favorite hangout night spots.
-
How much they spend when they go out and if it's an issue
Scenario:
“It’s a Saturday night and your friends just called and want to hangout at a bar, but its the end of the month and you’re a little tight on the budget - What do you do?”
Research Approach:
Qualitative research - Conducted personal interviews with 3 potential users to understand the target audience better like their likes, dislikes and typical behavior.
Affinity Diagram:
This diagram is based on likes, dislikes, most liked apps etc. to understand certain patterns that the target audience have in common and why certain apps appeal more than others to the target audience.
PROJECT DEFINITION
User Persona:
Ian is a 26 year old man living in the city of angels. He likes to go hangout with friends 3 - 5 times a week in different bars - mostly over the weekend. Some of his weekend goals include being able to go to affordable spots, finding places close by and avoid waiting in lines.
Challenges:
-
Some of the bars can get really expensive
-
It's hard to find information - different apps provide different kind of information
-
Most of the bars have long waiting lines
-
Parking spots are hard to find
Problem Statement
How can we make bar hopping more rewardable?…
IDEATE
Based on the information collected, I started brainstorming regarding what could be the possible solution to the challenges listed above. Some of the main ideas are:
-
Information about bars - bar scores, reviews
-
Provide more engagement and support local bars by driving traffic to their spots
-
Offer rewards to loyal users
-
Provide the users with average waiting time at bars
-
Information about parking spots
-
Socializing opportunities by providing events
Solution - Brooze:
Brooze is an app where users can find information about bars - like bar scores, reviews. “Broozers” (Brooze users) can also redeem rewards for points. Brooze helps users find affordable drinking places and plan ahead.
Feature Prioritization:
Additionally, thorough research on potential competitors to get a deeper understanding of the market
Direct Competitors
-
Yelp - Yelp has reviews, ratings, location of a place. Yelp’s reviews and ratings features for various "hangout" spots
-
Bar Pass - This app allows you to view menu, order through app, offers and rewards, so that users don’t have to wait in line
-
Y-Plan - Best events of the night with the option to buy tickets - option to get last minute tickets. Yplan has options that appeals to the adventurous people out there
Indirect Competitors
-
Best Parking - It's a parking search engines that compares car park prices. Parking is a major problem faced by a lot of users in LA
-
City Mapper - Cost to travel via various modes of transportation, features weather conditions
Feature Comparison:
Finalized Features:
Rewards - Based on "loyalty points", users can receive offers and rewards such as drinks and event tickets
Bar Scores and Reviews - Information about bars - bar scores (ratings), reviews, location, waiting time are all available at the user’s fingertips
Parking - Brooze provides a way for users to find free parking spots nearby
Event Tickets - Last minute tickets for events nearby for those who hate planning
User Flow: Path taken by the user on Brooze to gain loyalty points and redeem for rewards
User Flow: Path taken by the user on Brooze to gain loyalty points and redeem for rewards
User Flow: Path taken by the user on Brooze to gain loyalty points and redeem for rewards
User Flow: Path taken by the user on Brooze to gain loyalty points and redeem for rewards
.png)
PROTOTYPE AND TESTING
Now on to the fun part! Here are some initial sketches and wireframes of the screens
Usability Testing: Conducted unmoderated research with users who like going to bars, meeting people and are more on the "adventurous" side. The testing was done on 10 users for about 15 minutes each as I watched them navigate the prototype to achieve this particular goal - Redeeming a reward using this app.
What I heard - "Oh.. That barcode icon is clickable, I thought it was part of the search area"
"How do I sign up for this if I don't have an account?"
What it means - The placement of barcode should be moved to a place where it's more visible and sign up should be given the same level of importance as login specially for the first time users.
Out of 10 participants
9 users had trouble finding and scanning barcode to navigate to the rewards page
5 users had trouble finding the sign up button
After incorporating the feedback from the users, here's the final product:
Home: This is the first screen the user lands on after they login to the app. They can find near by and popular spots in the city. This To get more information, the user will click on a specific bar.
Rewards: Users can check in to bars by getting their bar codes scanned. When users check-in, loyalty points will be added to their accounts. Points can be redeemed for rewards
Events: Last minute event tickets and more information about events nearby
Parking: Users can find free parking near them. Also, they can add loyalty points to their account by booking uber/lyft using the app
NEXT STEPS
-
Tiers of Membership: Highest tier user can enter a bar without having to wait in long lines
-
Age Verification: Government ID can be added to the app so it can be used for age verification
-
Friends: Ability to add friends and make group plans